A group of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators is proposing that targeting immune checkpoints—molecules that regulate the activity of the immune system—in immune cells called microglia could reduce the ...

The developing brain is constantly forming new connections, or synapses, between nerve cells. Many connections are eventually lost, while others are strengthened. In 2012, Beth Stevens, Ph.D. and her lab at Boston Children's ...

A study by MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) researchers finds that the immune cells of the brain called microglia play a crucial role in brain development during adolescence, but that role is different in males and ...

Rare cells resembling those previously thought to exist only in the brain have been discovered in the spinal fluid of HIV patients by using a sensitive new genetic test that could provide insights into a host of neurological ...

Obesity leads to cognitive impairment by activating microglial cells, which consume otherwise functional synapses in the hippocampus, according to a study of male mice published in JNeurosci. The research suggests that microglia ...

Researchers from The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have discovered that the activation of brain cells called microglia likely contributes to the memory loss and other cognitive impairments suffered by many patients ...

Microglia, the immune cells of the central nervous system, differ in male and female mice. MDC researchers have reported on the sex-specific features in Cell Reports. Their findings could change how we treat neurological ...

A new Mount Sinai study, published July 23 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, provides important insight into how microglia, cells that form a branch of the immune system inside the brain, go about their job of clearing ...

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered that microglia, specialized immune cells in the brain, play a key role in clearing dead material after brain injury. The study, which will be published ...

A research team at Massachusetts Eye and Ear has shown that microglia, the primary immune cells of the brain and retina, play a protective role in response to retinal detachment. Retinal detachment and subsequent degeneration ...

Microglia

Microglia are a type of glial cell that are the resident macrophages of the brain and spinal cord, and thus act as the first and main form of active immune defense in the central nervous system (CNS). Microglia constitute 20% of the total glial cell population within the brain.[citation needed] Microglia (and astrocytes) are distributed in large non-overlapping regions throughout the brain and spinal cord. Microglia are constantly scavenging the CNS for damaged neurons, plaques, and infectious agents. The brain and spinal cord are considered "immune privileged" organs in that they are separated from the rest of the body by a series of endothelial cells known as the blood-brain barrier, which prevents most infections from reaching the vulnerable nervous tissue. In the case where infectious agents are directly introduced to the brain or cross the blood-brain barrier, microglial cells must react quickly to decrease inflammation and destroy the infectious agents before they damage the sensitive neural tissue. Due to the unavailability of antibodies from the rest of the body (few antibodies are small enough to cross the blood brain barrier), microglia must be able to recognize foreign bodies, swallow them, and act as antigen-presenting cells activating T-cells. Since this process must be done quickly to prevent potentially fatal damage, microglia are extremely sensitive to even small pathological changes in the CNS. They achieve this sensitivity in part by having unique potassium channels that respond to even small changes in extracellular potassium.